February 2013 – Page 6 – Politics Plus

Open Thread–2/10/2013

Posted by TomCat at 3:46 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Feb 102013

The day off yesterday did me a lot of good, as I slept most of the day. That has left me a bit groggy, but groggy from too much sleep is better than bleary-eyed from too little. I’m current with replies. Tomorrow looks good.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:49 (average 4:45). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Religious Misery:

This is the first Sunday since the Ellipsoid Orb has gone dark, shedding no light to the world, and depriving the faithful of meditation. May we survive this horrid time.

Short Takes:

From Chicago Tribune: Action film star Steven Seagal, who racks up big body counts in his on-screen battles with bad guys, took on a new role on Saturday, training posse volunteers for controversial Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio in how to use guns to protect schools in shooting incidents.

Great! The Arizona Death Angel, Jan Brewer, and her Republican Cronies have an actor, on behalf of an idiot, teaching gung-ho militia types to use guns around kids. InsaniTEA!

From NY Magazine: In a move that’s baffled and enraged his staunchly libertarian fans, three-time presidential candidate Ron Paul has asked the World Intellectual Property Organization to confiscate two domain names currently held by his supporters: RonPaul.com and RonPaul.org. In a Friday blog post [wing-nuts delinked], the sites’ proprietors fired back at their hero by claiming that they’d already offered to let Paul buy RonPaul.com (and its 170,000-follower mailing list) for a measly $250,000. (RonPaul.org was apparently thrown in as "a free gift.") After all, that’s the proper market economy way to handle this situation … right? Instead, their beloved leader has chosen to expropriate private property with the help of a major bastion of liberal tyranny: the United Nations, which controls the WIPA.

Ron Paul is as big a hypocrite as he is a corporatist, a misogynist, and a racist. I just wish he had not littered the Senate before he left.

From Think Progress: Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R), like Republican governors all across the country, aims to implement a regressive tax plan that involves cutting income taxes for the rich while, in his case, maintaining a sales tax hike that primarily hurts the poor. The sales tax increase was supposed to be temporary when it was adopted in 2010, but Brownback now wants to make permanent.

Sales taxes disproportionately impact the poor, who are more likely to spend all or most of their income. According to an analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Brownback’s plan will raise taxes on the poorest Kansans, but still lose hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue due to huge tax cuts for the rich.

As I have often said before, Republicans oppose raising taxes only for millionaires, billionaires, and giant corporations. They want to raise YOUR taxes whenever they can.

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Open Thread–2/9/2012

Posted by TomCat at 3:12 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Feb 092013

Yesterday my COPD was sufficiently severe that I have been able to sleep, so instead of pushing myself, I’m limiting my blogging to today’s Open Thread and returning to bed. I’m current with replies. I should be back tomorrow.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:10 (average 5:12). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon And The People Gas Companies Tell You Don’t Exist

There is no doubt whatsoever that Big Energy companies are profiting by killing and poisoning people. The methods they are using now must be outlawed, and the practice must be stopped altogether, until and unless they find a technique that safe for both humans and the environment. I strongly doubt that there is any such fracking technique.

From NY Times: A vast storm system descended on the Northeast on Friday, bringing high winds, deepening snow and threats of flooding to southern New England and reopening the old wounds of Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey and New York.

After a day of pelting wet snow, five states — New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Rhode Island — had declared states of emergency, and Massachusetts had banned vehicles from every road in the state. As dusk fell, conditions quickly deteriorated. Major highways like Interstate 93 were almost completely abandoned; downtown Boston, in blizzard conditions, was a ghost town lost in a swirl of howling winds and snow. Parked cars lost their shape and resembled scoops of ice cream.

I hope and pray that our friends in the effected area are exercising extreme care and staying safe and warm.

From Huffington Post: The founder of environmental group Sea Shepherd vowed Tuesday to continue disrupting Japan’s whaling fleet when it heads for the southern oceans this winter, despite authorities in at least three countries seeking his arrest.

Paul Watson, 61, was detained in Germany in May on a Costa Rican extradition warrant that accused him of endangering the crew of a fishing vessel in 2002.

About ten days ago the Canadian, who sees himself as an advocate for whales, sharks and other marine animals, skipped bail after learning that Japan, too, was seeking his extradition from Germany.

Personally, I have watched every episode of Whale Wars and have observed the care that the Sea Shepherds take to prevent the Japanese Whaling fleet from murdering whales without doing anything to hurt the Japanese crews. At the same time, I have seen whalers attempt to kill Sea Shepherds. I cannot fault Watson for evading a Japanese kangaroo court. I hope that the Sea Shepherds are successful in ending the murder of whales for profit under the guise of research.

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Should We Kick the Can?

Posted by TomCat at 3:48 am Politics

Feb 082013

Several times in the last few weeks, I have said that I would rather suffer the spending cuts in the sequester than a ‘grand bargain’ that reduces benefits, that present and future Social Security and/or Medicare recipients have earned with their life-long payroll deductions. On that, I have not changed. However, I have also strongly opposed kicking the can down the road, and on that issue, Paul Krugman has made some arguments that are leading me to defer to his wisdom on that point.

John Boehner, the speaker of the House, claims to be exasperated. “At some point, Washington has to deal with its spending problem,” he said Wednesday. “I’ve watched them kick this can down the road for 22 years since I’ve been here. I’ve had enough of it. It’s time to act.”

Actually, Mr. Boehner needs to refresh his memory. During the first decade of his time in Congress, the U.S. government was doing just fine on the fiscal front. In particular, the ratio of federal debt to G.D.P. was a third lower when Bill Clinton left office than it was when he came in. It was only when George W. Bush arrived and squandered the Clinton surplus on tax cuts and unfunded wars that the budget outlook began deteriorating again.

But that’s a secondary issue. The key point is this: While it’s true that we will eventually need some combination of revenue increases and spending cuts to rein in the growth of U.S. government debt, now is very much not the time to act. Given the state we’re in, it would be irresponsible and destructive not to kick that can down the road.

Start with a basic point: Slashing government spending destroys jobs and causes the economy to shrink.

This really isn’t a debatable proposition at this point. The contractionary effects of fiscal austerity have been demonstrated by study after study and overwhelmingly confirmed by recent experience — for example, by the severe and continuing slump in Ireland, which was for a while touted as a shining example of responsible policy, or by the way the Cameron government’s turn to austerity derailed recovery in Britain… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <NY Times>

Photo credit: Washington Post

I think he is right. I’m all for increasing revenue, because, as a percentage of the GDP, it is at a record low, but if we can’t come to a deal that leaves the big three alone, I’d rather put off the decision until another time. I know that is a change, but when I have been wrong, I say so.

Drop the Bernie Bomb!

Posted by TomCat at 3:47 am Politics

Feb 082013

Whenever the subject turns to economic fairness, currently skewed beyond recognition by the Republican War on the poor and Middle classes, you can always count on Bernie Sanders to side with the American people against Republican Plutocons, to speak the truth against Republican lies, and to offer solutions that are fair and spot-on.

Liberal Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) on Thursday announced new legislation to require multinational corporations to pay hundreds of billions in new taxes.

Their bill would stop companies from deferring tax payments on profits earned abroad. Currently taxes only need to be paid when the profits are repatriated and many companies have kept capital overseas for years to avoid tax penalties. This had led to some calls for a tax holiday to encourage companies to bring capital back to the U.S.

Sanders and Schakowsky said their bill would raise $590 billion over ten year according to a Joint Committee on Taxation analysis.

“It is past time for corporate America to contribute significantly to deficit reduction,” said Sanders in a statement…

…Under the bill, companies would pay U.S. taxes as profits are earned and they would still be able to deduct the value of taxes paid to foreign governments… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <The Hill>

Photo credit: The Stand

Because they could actually deduct taxes paid abroad, the Republican claim that this bill will double-tax companies is untrue.

Ed Schultz and Bernie discussed the bill.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Corporations pay the smallest portion of revenue here than everywhere in the industrialized world and one fourth of profitable corporations pay no taxes at all. Republicans say we have a spending problem, but in even with a GDP hamstrung by the Republican Recession, revenue, as a percentage of GDP, is a record low. So go for it! Drop the Bernie bomb!

Sadly, my hops for passage in the Senate is not high, because the Nevada Leg Hound, Harry Reid, betrayed us all by not significantly reforming the filibuster, when he had the votes to do so.

Open Thread–2/8/2013

Posted by TomCat at 3:46 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Feb 082013

Something must have been going on downtown yesterday, because there were helicopters low over my building for the early part of my sleep time, so I’m pretty pooped. I’m current with replies and should be OK tomorrow.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:45 (average 5:26). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: BREAKING: MoveOn Makes A Bet That A Million Progressive Leaders Are Yet To Be Sparked

Kudos to MoveOn. They have done a spectacular job in the past and their future appears most promising.

From Think Progress: Rep. Raúl Labrador (R-ID), a key player in the ongoing House negotiations to advance comprehensive immigration reform, has come out against providing a pathway to citizenship for the nation’s 11 million undocumented immigrants, echoing a growing consensus among conservative members. The position is in stark contrast to the framework put forward by a bipartisan group of Senators and President Obama — which would allow the unauthorized to earn citizenship.

“The people that came here illegally knowingly – I don’t think they should have a path to citizenship,” Labrador said during an interview with NPR on Thursday morning. “If you knowingly violated our law, you violated our sovereignty, I think we should normalize your status but we should not give you a pathway to citizenship.”

The Republican intent here is crystal clear. They are willing to let undocumented workers stay, but only as long as they can be used as serf labor.

From Media Matters: On Fox News, Republican strategist Brad Blakeman denied the scientific consensus on manmade climate change, saying "For every one scientist that says there is, I’ll give you 10 scientists that said it’s not manmade":

But in fact, credible surveys have repeatedly found that the vast majority of climate scientists agree humans are changing the climate. For instance, a 2009 survey published by the American Geophysical Union found that 97 percent of those who specialize in climate science said human activity is contributing to rising global temperatures:

The Republican Reichsministry of propaganda, Faux Noise, deals with facts in a thoroughly Republican way. They make them up.

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And Republicans want it back!

How Republicans Went Postal

Posted by TomCat at 4:23 am Politics

Feb 072013

This is not the first time I have covered this story, but in light of recent developments, it is time to revisit what the Republican Party is doing to the US Postal Service. To be brief, the post office is under assault by Republicans, who are trying to destroy it for their own political ends, which as usual, conflict with the best interest of the American people.

The U.S. Postal Service announced on Wednesday that it will discontinue first class Saturday mail delivery, marking another milestone in the decline of the once-ubiquitous government service. But it isn’t a switch to online mail that’s causing the postal demise — it’s Congress.

Under the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, Congress has for years forced the USPS to pre-fund 75 years’ worth of pensions for its employees, a requirement not made of any other public or private institution. That means that the Postal Service is footing the bill for employees it hasn’t even hired yet.

The USPS doesn’t actually receive money from the government, but still needs Congressional approval to make any changes to its structure. An analysis in July showed that the USPS, without its pension requirement, would have a $1.5 billion surplus…

Inserted from <Think Progress>

Ed Schultz detailed how the Post Office problems are the result of Republican sabotage.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

If Republicans can destroy USPS they also kill one of the largest unions in the nation and privatize mail delivery for commercial carriers, who will charge much higher rates, especially in rural areas that USPS services for the same prices as urban areas.

We’re Number One… NOT!

Posted by TomCat at 4:22 am Politics

Feb 072013

Here in the US, ethnocentrism is rampant. That is the notion that we are better than everyone else. This applies particularly to Republicans. They use it to justify the wars they started in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the wars they want to start in Iran, Syria, and anywhere a progressive government is blocking exploitation by US companies. The truth is, we are number one in GDP, but that’s all.

"The Global Competitiveness Report 2012-2013,” by the World Economic Forum, is the latest annual ranking of 144 countries, on a wide range of factors related to global economic competitiveness.

On each of their many rankings, #1 represents the best nation, and #144 represents the worst nation.

Gross Domestic Product is the only factor where the U.S. ranks as #1, which we do both on "GDP” and on “GDP as a Share of World GDP.”

Health Care has the U.S. ranking #34 on “Life Expectancy,” and #41 on “Infant Mortality.”

Education in the U.S. is also mediocre. On “Quality of Primary Education,” we are #38. On “Primary Education Enrollment Rate,” we are #58. On “Quality of the Educational System,” we are #28. On “Quality of Math and Science Education,” we are #47. On “Quality of Scientific Research Institutions,” we are #6. On “PCT [Patent Cooperation Treaty] Patent Applications [per-capita],” we are #12. On “Firm-Level Technology Absorption” (which is an indicator of business-acceptance of inventions), we are #14… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Alternet>

A solution here requires no rocket science. Instead of blowing our own horn, we simply need to look at what the leaders are doing in areas where we lag behind, and do what they are doing.

Open Thread–2/7/2013

Posted by TomCat at 4:21 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Feb 072013

Yesterday, research and blogging took almost ten hours and really tired me out. Today I am doing laundry while writing. Some things never change. I still HATE laundry. Green with envy I’m current with replies. I expect to be back tomorrow.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:59 (average 5:10). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: These Young Kids Are Facing A Death Sentence And It's Totally Legal

This is how corporate criminals profit from harming others. To make them stop and pay for the damage they have done, we must remove Republicans from office.

From The Daily Beast: It’s official: Fox is the most distrusted name in news.

Why am I not surprised? Faux Noise is Republican infoganda, not news.

From MSNBC: Is Ashley the answer?

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I'm all for anyone who can make Bought Bitch Mitch join the unemployment line. An even bigger smile will follow, if the next Senate begins with a new Republican Minority Leader and a new Democratic Majority Leader.

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